How long does it take Esri to support a new Oracle version?
Here are my current thoughts:
In the Esri Dev Summit – Plenary session recording (time: 1:01:00), the presenter mentioned that the next version of Enterprise is planned to be released “[between] March and April” of this year.
That’s basically now, with Oracle 23c not being yet released, meaning the upcoming version of Enterprise won’t support Oracle 23c.
As @MarceloMarques suggested:
When I look at the “Multiple Version Table” section in Enterprise Product Life Cycle, it looks like there can be anywhere from 1-3 Enterprise releases per year. But two releases per year seems to be the most common, at least in recent years.
So I suppose it’s possible that there would be an additional Enterprise release this year. And such a version might even support Oracle 23c. However, my organization plans to upgrade our GIS "sometime this year". So I imagine the additional version of Enterprise would be released too late in the year for it to be used in our GIS Upgrade.
So I’ll likely be out of luck when it comes to Oracle 23c being used in our GIS Upgrade. And will need to wait until the following GIS Upgrade, 4-5 years from now, to use Oracle 23c functionality (or whatever subsequent version of Oracle applies).
Related: When is the next ArcGIS Enterprise version planned for release?
@SimonSchütte_ct
Oracle has not released Oracle 23ai for On-Premises yet (Windows and Linux).
Oracle 23ai is only available in the Oracle Cloud since Sep/2023.
Esri will certify and support Oracle 23ai with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise in a future ArcGIS release after Oracle releases the Oracle 23ai On-Premises (Windows and Linux).
There is no clear date yet when Oracle will release Oracle 23ai On-Premises (Windows and Linux) in 2024.
Some customers are asking to support and certify Oracle 23ai in the Oracle Cloud, but that is also coming in a future ArcGIS release still to be determined. We typically wait for the Oracle On-Premises to be released before we officially support the new Oracle version in the next ArcGIS release.
History for the folks reading this reply.
- Oracle released Oracle 23c in the Oracle Cloud in Sep/2023.
- Oracle was supposed to release Oracle 23c On-Premises (Windows/Linux) at the end of 2023.
- But because the AI trend Oracle postponed the release of the Oracle 23c On-Premises (Windows / Linux).
- Oracle 23c (c for Cloud) was renamed Oracle 23ai ( ai for artificial intelligence).
Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (oracle.com)
MOS My Oracle Support - https://support.esri.com
MOS Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)
see a link to download the article at the bottom of this reply
23ai Linux x86-64 2H CY2024
23ai Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) 2H CY2024
2H CY2024 (date falls within 2nd half of 2024)
I hope this clarifies your question.
@SimonSchütte_ct - usually only the next release of ArcGIS Enterprise will support the next Oracle Database release initially, but the product team will review, and if that is the case then a previous release of ArcGIS Enterprise e.g. 11.3, might be certified with the new Oracle Database release, there are no plans yet about this, and sometimes to support the new Oracle Release is necessary to create additional patches for the previous ArcGIS release e.g. 11.3. At this point we are waiting for Oracle to release Oracle 23ai On-Premises for Windows and Linux, then the product team will work on the plan to support Oracle 23ai with ArcGIS. Note, Oracle 23ai is the next long-term Oracle release. I understand that you are using 21c which is the innovation release, and has a short life cycle, meaning a very short period that patches are available, for production databases the recommendation as you know is to choose the long-term release, which has a longer life cycle with a long period of patches available. Oracle 19c is still the long-term release till Oracle releases Oracle 23ai On-Premises for Windows and Linux. If the Oracle 23ai release gets postponed into 2025, and you reach Oracle 21c end of patching on April/30/2025, then I would consider downgrading to Oracle 19c, if you move to 19c then you will need to reload the data using ArcGIS tools, Oracle data pump can move the data from 19c to 21c but the other way around will fail, the 19c will not be able to read the 21c data pump export, unless you create the 21c data pump export using the VERSION parameter in the data pump export command. I understand that this is a lot of work to consider, I would do a prototype and a pilot first for the migration and document everything. Hence, moving to the Oracle Database Long Term Release that is currently available, in this case, 19c, is the best alternative for the road ahead as we cannot predict when Oracle 23ai will be released nor determine yet when and which versions of ArcGIS Enterprise will support Oracle 23ai in the future.
I hope this helps.
